Segway – Johnny Lyle's new brand thinking

The Sheriff of Nottingham in USA – Part eight – San Francisco

We worked out a schedule, I blogged that schedule and we hit that schedule. It’s a first and a wonderful first at that.

Today was a day of Iconography and infamy. Our first call saw me change my name to Cristol. A surprise to me, but my accent is clearly so hard to understand that when I gave my name to the lady behind the breakfast counter, she translated John to Cristol. As well as free name changes, the breakfast cafe were experts in sourdough sculpture as you can see from these assorted Alligators and crabs.

Our breakfast destination was a place that did sourdough and liked to make it into funny shapes

We headed for the Golden Gate Bridge with a huge sea mist rolling in under its spans. Its not golden, so I really don’t know why its called that, but it is enormously popular. In the time we were there, there had to be 200+ people walking the bridge and nearly as many cyclists. This was on a day when you literally couldn’t see the bridge apart from a few brief glimpses through the mist.

The Golden Gate Bridge, peeping through the mist

Designed by Irving Morrow, it has a central span of 1280m, and a height from the top of the tower to the water of 230m. That is seriously huge. the cables to hold it up are as big as a sewage pipe.

If you’re gonna use a cable to hold up the Golden Gate Bridge, use a big one

Built between 1933 and 1937, it links Marin County to San Francisco. The water underneath is very cold apparently and the temperature differential causes the now trademark fog, which is as common as the bad roads in the region. This freezing Pacific water is also the reason that Alcatraz is so hard to escape from. Freezing cold, combined with visibly strong currents gives it a menacing grace.

The sheriff of Nottingham under one of the huge Golden Gate towers

How have they commercialised it? Well, they haven’t really. No charge to walk over it, a tiny gift shop and an even tinier café. Bt even a taxi rank from which they can make money. I guess they appreciate that people come to the city for the view and enjoy all the rest if what it has to offer whilst they’re here.

So what do we learn from this? Well iconic works. Why would that many people come to see and walk on a bridge that is just that – a bridge. Because it is beautiful spectacular and on view from almost every part of the city. It also has a team of 38 painters who work full time, just trying to keep the old girl looking at her best. We spoke to one of them, Michael who chatted to us in his break, whilst the bridge creaked, groaned and swayed in the strong wind.

Michael – One of 38 Golden Gate Bridge painters

We have written in numerous presentations about how much our city needs something iconic. A Swiss Re a Pompidou or a Golden Gate. Again, something world class, that draws people for the sake of it. To see it to walk across it, to walk underneath it and to be photographed with it for them to add it to their little list of tick box ‘must see’s’.

Global warming also isn’t an issue in San Francisco as everywhere you go, if they want to draw you in, they have burning patio heaters, or in this case a huge open air (and totally pointless) heater.

Global warming isn’t an issue in San Francisco

It’s also incredibly touristy in places. Looking along the road of the hotel we are staying at shows why. There are massive cruise ships stopping at the end of the road, unloading loads upon loads of twinset ridden tourist types.

A massive cruise ship at the end of our road

We had booked a trip across to Alcatraz Island. A state controlled ‘attraction’ that draws 1.3m visitors per year. For $26 you get as long on the island as you want (although last ferry home is 6.15pm and don’t be late. You get an audio tour, all sorts of other escape and famous convict tours and absolutely no food and drink. None. Not even a token bag of crisps. It’s not as though you can do a runner with it. I can only imagine this is a covenant thing that they’re not allowed to sell food. They have a captive audience that are spending 3-4 hours on an island and they have no food. Derrrrr. If you sold them food, by UK averages, you’d make an extra $7m a year.

Alcatraz, infamy and iconography all rolled into one enormous visitor attraction

The shop is pretty profitable, as it takes between $20-30k per day. That’s a good $7-10m per year. Add that to the $30m or so they are getting from the visitors fees and you have a very big business.

One of the nice things they did in the retail outlet was sell exclusive merchandise. Almost every shop in SF sells Alcatraz stuff, but most of what you can buy there, you can only buy there. Clever way to make more from a (hungry and bloody thirsty) captive and captivated audience. When I wrote about the Alcatraz brand a few months ago here, I had no idea that I would experience it myself so soon, but now I have.

The full force of the Alcatraz brand is used in all of the merchandise

One of the crap things they did however was try to sell you a terrible photo of yourself posing against a backdrop’ of the island. Not even a shot in the real cells, but against an awfully printed backdrop. They printed the film and then tried to get you but two 7×5 prints for $22. I hung about, but I didn’t see anyone buying any. Perhaps a lesser price or a bigger single print, or maybe even digital technology to avoid them having to print, may enhance what they do quite badly.

The Island itself is very engaging. An excellent 45 minute audio tour takes you on a personal and slightly isolated (as you wear headphones throughout) wander around the prison and a tiny part of the grounds. This tour uses the voices (or claimed voices) of four former inmates and four former warders. It uses sound effects to an excellent level and it caught the imagination of all ages from kids to grandparents.

We can’t do our own island in Nottingham, and we can’t do a boat ride in with views of the Golden Gate Bridge, but we just have to do an audio tour that catches people’s imagination like this.

We have Robin Hood, ghosts, caves and the story of the city itself. The technology they use is hardly break the bank stuff, but if it’s scripted right, we could manage the timings, the flow and the entire visitor experience for anyone from any country and with any interest.

The Alcatraz Audio Tour is powered by a clever little digital device with great sound quality

I don’t think that you would see this unless you saw it. This system of capturing and isolating the punter on the way through really works. Its not always comfortable, but we have to learn from this and ensure we use it to our advantage.

And so to Segway. Or City Segway Tours to be precise. Number one on Tripadvisor in San Francisco – and I’m not surprised. It was phenomenal.

All aboard the Segway’s = the only way to travel

One of our party, Nick Hammond, summed it up by saying ‘it’s not often you get to do something that is totally new to you.’ And that’s it, its totally new. Very few will have ever ridden on a gyro balanced personal transportation device. When we got chatting to Pam, the proprietor, she said that they were ‘going gangbusters’. If this isn’t a huge part of the future of tourism i’d be amazed.

This is Pam, the owner of City Segway Tours SF

It was perhaps one of my highlights of the trip because (I am terribly geeky about technology) and I had wanted to have a go on one, since I first saw them on TV in 2002. I assumed it was an April fool or CGI because it looked so freakish, and I can now confirm that it is freakish, but also very easy to learn, master and enjoy.

Our tour, was beautifully managed by Larry, a publisher by day and Segway expert by night. It seems mad that having signed the biggest most wordy CDW, you are then allowed to take their $5k piece of kit on the open roads with ten minutes training and an ill fitting bike helmet – but this is the ludicrous situation of US law.

You can’t do a thing one minute without a lawyer, and you can hang of the side of a cable car and Segway the next. How does this stack up and who would want to pay their insurance? The waiver you sign, agreeing to pay the first $500 of any damage you may do to their kit does rather explain this, but who can blame them, or their insurers?

We rode around the town with Diane and Keren from South Dakota, with the group of us getting catcalls and questions from the walking public. It’s not an outing for a shy person as everyone watches you and children point, laugh and in one case, cry. Perhaps she thought we were alien robots?

At the end of South Beach Pier with Alcatraz as a backdrop for our Segway’s

Pam described the value of their Tripadvsor placing as being central to what they do. To get to number one is hard, but to stay there is really hard. But there’s a reason they’re number one and that’s because they’re brilliant. Nothing was a problem and you weren’t a berk if you found it tricky.

We have to find a way to bring Segways to Nottingham. The hills in San Francisco are hillier than ours. The traffic lighter. A tour around the castle, the square and the park, is a sure fire winner, so I may be applying for a City Segway franchise as soon as we get home.

Anyway, Seattle tomorrow. Space Needle and the Rock and Roll Museum, that many rate as the best museum in the world. Its another very long day with only breakfast and lunch – due to the supersized standard portions) and another very late night, but San Francisco has been an incredible adventure that Nottingham just has to learn from.

Robin Hood

The Sheriff of Nottingham in USA – Part seven

So lets see whether we can get anywhere near a schedule today shall we?

It’s an early start as we have lots to try and fit in, so we’re heading off at 8am, so this has to be brief.

First off is a trip over to meet the team at the Golden Gate. A world class attraction will hopefully have a world class team behind the management of it, so there should be much to learn from them.

This area of San Francisco is so amazingly touristy, it’s a bit like an American Blackpool, with Fishermans Wharf beings its rather nicer Golden Mile (or two).

We’re going over to Alcatraz after that, but it is dependent on being able to get onto a boat, which seem oversubscribed. This may have to wait until Midday.

At 4.30 I WILL do the Segway tour, complete with fetching Gilet and helmet.

And I’ve heard a rumour that there is a baseball game at the At&T stadium up the road, which starts at 10.15 tonight. If its on ad I’m still awake, I’m going!

I’ll report in later

Robin Hood

The Sheriff of Nottingham in the USA – Part Six

Today, being a travelling day, was always going to be slightly frustrating and a reliance on the Internet, for opening times and full information made it even more so.

The day started well with a short walk in the blazing LA heat up the road to the Simmon Wiesenthal Center, the home of the Museum of Tolerance.

The simon Wisenthal center, home to the museum of Intolerance - sorry tolerance! — The Simon Wiesenthal center, home to the museum of Intolerance - sorry tolerance!

The first thing you would expect from a place called the Museum of Tolerance is, well, tolerance. Initial impressions were so entirely opposite to this that I found it hard to even enter the exhibition. After an ID check to allow yourself through the doors, you were faced with a pair of extraordinarily stoney faced receptionists, playing the role of sales prevention officers. Nothing to cause us a problem, was too much of a problem to them.

After paying and having to agree that we would stay for their minimum of 1.5 hours, we were subjected to a lecture by the search team. We were told that if we took a picture, our camera would be confiscated and not returned,. The smoker in our group was not just told to get rid of a cigarette lighter, they were made to put it fully in a litter bin outside. No explanation, no information, just surly and unnecessary unhelpfulness. I understand the obvious political sensitivities of such a display, but there is no excuse for this level of unpleasantness at a front desk. compared to the Getty Center, which had a far more wealthy benefactor and probably needed the cash more, it was truly awful.

We split into two groups. One to see the holocaust exhibition and the others seeing the general exhibits. As I wasn’t allowed to take any pictures, I can’t show you what I saw, but I will tell you, that the holocaust exhibition is comfortably the most harrowing exhibition experience I have ever been through in my life.

It is a timed exhibition where you move through multiple displays watching a series of films, posters and clips, moving from room to room as the series of lights dictates. We were told it would take 65 minutes and you were not allowed to leave before the end. The lady who took us down to the start, gave us each a plastic credit card with a child’s face and name printed onto it. We were to put this card into a machine (when we were told and not a moment sooner) and it would tell you the story of that child. As we began, an elderly gentleman who worked in the Center, came over and inserted a card that he held, which was his story. He had escaped from Poland in 1947 and was one of the very few Jewish children to survive. He also told us that Elizabeth, the lady who had showed us down, was also a holocaust survivor. By this time, we were forgiving the few surly people at the start and felt truly humbled.

Following through the exhibition, you are lead from room to room, with each one getting increasingly oppressive and cold. The material presented got harder as the plight of the Jewish people throughout Europe got more appalling. After an hour, we walked through a brick built corridor, given the choice of able bodied or one for women and children. This lead you into a full scale mock up of a gas chamber, complete with gas valves in the roof. There was a minute or more of silence before any lights came on and the appalling finale began. At this point, if a bit of dry ice had come from the ceiling vents, I would have run out in tears, but thankfully they remained quiet. I won’t retell the story here, but it is one we should all understand, perhaps all experience and certainly all ensure can never happen again. I was glad to leave, but distraught by what I had seen.

It was a silent walk back to the hotel.

It was in fact a silent cab ride to the airport.

And it was still pretty quiet when we boarded the plane to San Francisco. Their message had hit all of us, and hit hard.

The power of the exhibition was in the extreme nature of the material, but also in the dramatic monochromatic settings they took you through. The increasing tension, the increasing cold and, in truth, the increasing anxiety. This was far more than intolerance, this was a story of an horrific slaughter. Not comfortable material, but one I’m very glad I have experienced.

I can feel myself struggling to write this and that is over 12 hours later.

What a day to see such a demonstration of intolerance. 9/11. Intolerance doesn’t seem to do it justice. I can only imagine that they have called it this because no-one would surely want to see the Museum of harrowing, awful, appalling, unbelievable, tragic, terrible, hateful, outrageous, disgracefulness.

The airport and transfer was fine, apart from the now standard semi strip you need to go through to get into a departure lounge. Belt, shoes, wallet, keys change, laptop, drinks, sanity, dignity etc etc. You get through to the lounge needing a drink to be told that a Coke is $3.58. is this a sensible price, or an airport cashing in on the fact that people can’t carry a drink through these days. Judging by the $10 sandwich, my feeling is that it is nothing less than extreme profiteering. I skipped lunch.

Arrival at the airport was on time, luggage was waiting for us and a queue of taxis were in line for their waiting prey. Both groups, having been on an amazing drive from the airport, reported viciously rude drivers on arrival at the hotel. The difference in the architecture from LA to San Francisco is incredibly noticeable and so is the attitude of the cabbies. We followed route 101 into San Francisco – and the taxi driver wouldn’t speak – not even answering questions. I didn’t tip him. he spoke then. He insulted me. Bad ad for the city.

Route 101 into San Francisco from the passenger seat of an unpleasant taxi driver

The one thing I was determined to do whilst we were here was the Segway tour. I have always wanted to ride on a Segway, so I’d been online and checked all their times. The last trip on their three hour tour left at six, so it was a rush to get all of the team over to the right bit of Fishermans Wharf in time for last orders. But no. the last one goes at 4.30. Just to rub salt into the wound, as we had a really late lunch at Buena Vista, they came past us, in their gilets and cycling helmets. I absolutely believe they rerouted past my café, just to wind me up.

My very own Segway tour coming past the cafe that I was eating in, 1.5 hours before it should have done, but considerably ater i had arrived for their 6pm tour!

This café, had a view from one window over Alcatraz out of one window and the golden gate bridge out of the other. They claimed to be world famous for their Irish coffees, but I’d never heard of theirs, so I didn’t have one. The good old Urban Spoon application gave them 87%. I’d say this was pretty fair.

After our late lunch, it was already getting dark and much colder. The mist was rolling in over the Golden Gate Bridge, creating a beautiful scene for the little banjo busker to play to.

The banjo busker, complete with all the chat and the mist rolling in under the Golden Gate Bridge

Now, 29 years ago, my Dad came to San Francisco on a business trip, when he worked for Allied Breweries. He bought me back a small wooden model of the trolley bus, so it was something I had to do. $5 seemed a bargain for a thrill ride of my lifetime, hanging off the side, seeing scenes from every major cop show of the 70’s, bouncy ball TV ads and the chase scenes from Bullitt. It was like being in the filming of the Streets of San Francisco. An 100 year old system, that’s just as relevant today as I presume it was then. It had a queue around the block – admittedly the two groups in front of us were from Glasgow and London – but it was still an extraordinary experience that I will never forget. Its operational controls are still completely agricultural and it takes some physical strength to control it, but locals were jumping on and off, like it was a little local hopper.

I'm sorry this shot is out of focus, but bowling up a hill on a San Francisco Trolly Bus, with a view over Alcatraz was too much for my flash to cope with!

If our Nottingham tram drivers displayed the level of character this driver did, marshalling his customers into their correct places, I would imagine the NET would be a huge tourist attraction in its own right.

We went to have a run on the Metro too. An underground system with little two car carriages buzzing around. Clean quick and efficient and again, well patronised. It was only $2, which makes the London Underground look extortionate.

And so to bed. Or rather for me, and so to write. All the others seemed to be flagging a touch, so I had to pop in to the 7/11 around the corner for a few Budweisers and some crisps. It’s sort of like writing fuel but less healthy.

Essential work materials - Budweiser and crisps - an essential for any writer

Night night.

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